As I have been saying since the creation of this blog, why pay for your college education with a loan when free money is available. The source of that free money remains the same and the best way to position to get it is still a FAFSA application (Free Application for Student Aid). The biggest sources of free money are made available as a result of completing FAFSA, and are awarded by federal and state program. Athletic and Academic Scholarships still only make up a fraction of financial aid for college with grants making up about 40%, with loans filling in the rest. The beauty of a grant is you don’t have to pay it back. The unfortunate truth remains that the FAFSA process is still under-utilized by a majority of students that would easily qualify for financial aid. The general message has been apply early to get the best results for your effort, while my continued mantra has been at least apply what do you have to lose? What is the worst thing that could happen is potentially being awarded government student loan that will have a better payback interest rate then most lending institute you may use for that purpose. There are four grants that may be made available based on your personal situation, college of choice and need for aid. They are Federal Pell grants represent the larger of the grants and are determined by need and choice of college as they apply to federal guidelines. These grants usually are a fixed amount each year and may be supplemented with additional grants for specific subject math, science and social science or academic awards based on grade point average and academic excellence. The next would be Federal supplemental education grants to assist neediest students and State grants to encourage specific areas of study and Institutional grants from the college themselves to assist when other financial support from federal and state grants are not enough. The best way to get the most out of institutional grants is by targeting colleges that have expressed a desire for you to attend. So I will keeping saying it, fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and submit online or request an application by calling the U.S. Department of Education at (800) 433-3243. It's smart to file as soon as possible because many colleges' aid deadlines are in early to mid-February, and their reserves of grant money may have used up substantially by the time they actually stop accepting applications. The FAFSA requires copies of your parent’s previous year's tax return. If you don't have that ready, you can include a return with estimated numbers and update them when you get better numbers.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
4 Grants Available via FAFSA
As I have been saying since the creation of this blog, why pay for your college education with a loan when free money is available. The source of that free money remains the same and the best way to position to get it is still a FAFSA application (Free Application for Student Aid). The biggest sources of free money are made available as a result of completing FAFSA, and are awarded by federal and state program. Athletic and Academic Scholarships still only make up a fraction of financial aid for college with grants making up about 40%, with loans filling in the rest. The beauty of a grant is you don’t have to pay it back. The unfortunate truth remains that the FAFSA process is still under-utilized by a majority of students that would easily qualify for financial aid. The general message has been apply early to get the best results for your effort, while my continued mantra has been at least apply what do you have to lose? What is the worst thing that could happen is potentially being awarded government student loan that will have a better payback interest rate then most lending institute you may use for that purpose. There are four grants that may be made available based on your personal situation, college of choice and need for aid. They are Federal Pell grants represent the larger of the grants and are determined by need and choice of college as they apply to federal guidelines. These grants usually are a fixed amount each year and may be supplemented with additional grants for specific subject math, science and social science or academic awards based on grade point average and academic excellence. The next would be Federal supplemental education grants to assist neediest students and State grants to encourage specific areas of study and Institutional grants from the college themselves to assist when other financial support from federal and state grants are not enough. The best way to get the most out of institutional grants is by targeting colleges that have expressed a desire for you to attend. So I will keeping saying it, fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and submit online or request an application by calling the U.S. Department of Education at (800) 433-3243. It's smart to file as soon as possible because many colleges' aid deadlines are in early to mid-February, and their reserves of grant money may have used up substantially by the time they actually stop accepting applications. The FAFSA requires copies of your parent’s previous year's tax return. If you don't have that ready, you can include a return with estimated numbers and update them when you get better numbers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment